Currently anyone with access to a browser and an Internet connection can post information online. The proliferation of information has had benefits and drawbacks. The benefits include easier access to quality information and media. Media is also being shared under creative commons licenses that allow others to use and sometimes modify another person's work to create something new and innovative (Don't forget to cite your source and make sure that if you change the image that the license allows a derivative to be made!). HOWEVER, you must make sure that your use of other people's work (this includes text, images, audio, video etc.) DOES NOT VIOLATE ETHICAL PRACTICES or break copyright law. There are other
drawbacks that include access to an over abundance of information that varies dramatically in terms of quality. This requires future teachers to be able to critically evaluate information.



Useful Websites:



Finding Copyright Friendly Materials

This is a list of copyright friendly resources. REMEMBER the licenses may vary so it is important to make sure to read the licenses agreement or copyright info for any image or other media file. Copyright can be a gray area so here are some tips for staying with copyright friendly material.
  1. Use your own images. (If working with K-12 students you need permission to post their images to the web.
  2. Use Public Domain images (e.g., images from NASA)
  3. Use images with Creative Commons licenses or other "friendly" licenses such as GNU. For a definition of the different types of creative commons licenses please CLICK HERE.

DO NOT USE IMAGES FROM A GOOGLE SEARCH. OFTEN THERE IS NO INFORMATION ABOUT COPYRIGHT-IF THIS IS THE CASE YOU MUST ASSUME THAT IT IS COPYRIGHT PROTECTED. DO NOT USE IMAGES THAT HAVE AN "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED" COPYRIGHT.

General

(*Note: these sites are GENERALLY FRIENDLY. You still need to check out the copyright.)

Science




Social Studies





Language Arts




Sound



Video